Shoppers Are Ready To Sack Scanners

May 05, 1990|By Abigail Van Buren.

Dear Abby: May we bend your ear with a pet peeve? It`s grocery stores that use automatic scanners and no longer put prices on their merchandise. They insist that this is for the customers` ``convenience.``

Prices (not always current) are shown on the front of the grocery store shelves. How is an elderly person, a pregnant woman, someone with arthritis or bifocals, or in a wheelchair-or just overweight-supposed to read the prices under the bottom shelf? If there are no prices on the items in your grocery cart, how can you quickly tally the total before you get to the checkout and the clerk informs you that you owe more than you can pay?

Most stores offer to refund scanning errors. This does not make up for the aggravation and time wasted. A shopper`s only alternative is to patronize a store that still marks their merchandise the old-fashioned way.

New is not always better-at least for customers-but complaints fall on deaf ears.

Gwen and Sally McBreairty, Willow Street, Pa.

Dear Gwen and Sally: To quote the consumer`s friend, Ralph Nader: ```When sellers have dreams of riches, beware of schemes that look like glitches!`

What is emerging from the complaints of consumers who write to us is that small rip-offs amount to big business because they are applied to large numbers of customers.

``Most consumers do not know they are being taken by these sly frauds, and those few who do are given the, `Oh sorry, it was a computer error,` or,

`Just a mistake that we`ll clear up right away.` There is, however, no

`sorry` extended to the consumers who don`t challenge the same bilk by the same seller. The result is a mountain of cash purloined for no services rendered.``

So, dear readers: Budget-conscious shoppers should be wary of automation. When they make out their shopping lists, they should list the prices advertised with the items they need, and then total them up. If the total at the cash register is higher, an explanation-and possibly a refund-is in order. Dear Abby: Many people are trying to lose weight, and some are paying a fortune to lose it, only to gain it back as soon as they return to their usual eating habits.

About 35 years ago, a fat teen-age boy went to his doctor for a diet to lose weight. He followed his doctor`s advice and established good eating habits. Today, he is slender as a reed. Here is what the good doctor told him: ``Do not eat anything or drink anything except water between meals. At mealtime, take the same amount of food on your plate that you`re accustomed to taking-then put back exactly half of it. Eat slowly, and chew each bite 20 times so you won`t feel hungry. Now, be honest with yourself. Don`t begin loading your plate as if you were going to slop a hog.``

A Friend in Bend, Ore.

Dear Friend: I am curious to know why the good doctor prescribed taking the same amount of food you`re accustomed to taking-then putting half of it back. Why not take just half of the amount in the first place?